Clandestine
by raining ripples
Summary: She dangled precariously from a fraying rope caught in the railings of the skyscraper. her life was on the line, literally. All in a day's work in the life of a spy. Now, how's she going to get out of this one? SASUSAKU,NH,SI,NT. AU
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: Disclaimed.  
**(c) Masashi Kishimoto & prologue inspired by book Undercover girl - Christine Harris.

* * *

Her stomach flopped. She hadn't been spotted by her target yet, but that could change in a second. He knew she was close. He knew she was watching him.

She looked to the left without turning her head. Passer-bys would just see an innocent-looking girl window-shopping in the mall. She checked her watch. She had to tag him in ten minutes.

"Got a dollar, miss?" a gruff voice rumbled into her ear, she looked up. A man with ratty dreadlocks and frayed fingerless 'hobo' gloves held out his hand. His eye were rimmed with red and skin crinkled. His eyeballs seemed too small for their sockets "Pick on someone your own size," She replied sourly before sending him a look that made him back away. She couldn't lose her target now. This was too important. Her first mission depended on it.

Again, she inspected the ever-changing crowd of shoppers. Yes there he was, black jeans, navy polo, dark sunglasses and midnight blue/black hair (gelled?) to look like a chicken's ass. He stopped, fingered a tomato from a fruit stand outside of a store while carefully scanning the people near him.

Then, he was on the move again, sauntering as if he had all the time in the world. But, he didn't. And both of them knew that.

She loosened her hair tie and fanned her long brunette hair behind her back, slipped off her jacket and flipped it, changing it to a deep sea blue colour matching her eyes which were following the target. She'd learnt at training, "change some about your appearance even if its little."

Casually, as if she were daydreaming, she strolled along the edge of the mall, beside shop windows. Instinctively she closed her hand around the taser in her pocket as she closed the gap between her and her target, always ready to aim.

The target quickened his pace and turned right into a post office. She went opposite , turned around and slipped on her sunglasses. The mirrored side strips allowed her to see behind her without turning around.

"How may I help you?"

She flicked a glance at the sales assistant who had tight lips and thick make-up.

"No thanks, just looking." She replied politely watching her target come out, go to a booth next to the lift and pay for a parking ticket.

"Hmmph, damn window shoppers, breathing all over the glass." The lady muttered under her breath, when she thought that she couldn't hear her.

Across the mall, the target pressed a button next to the lift. He checked his watch and scanned the people around him. _Bet he thinks he's safe. Well, think again, chicken ass._

He stepped inside the lift and the doors slid shut. She eyed the numbers above the lift, _G,..P1,..P2,..P2! _She took the stairs and sprinted down two flights of stairs,-good thing she was athletic.

This was it.

She edged open the door, just a crack. It made only the slightest of sounds as the door opened. _There he is, reaching into his pocket, probably for he's keys. _Two minutes to go, maybe tree.

Taking a deep breath, she crouched and squeezed through the small gap of the partly opened door and let it click shut. Mouselike, she crept across the oil-stained floor towards her target. She flattened herself against the ground peering underneath the Mercedes beside her. Two legs covered by black pants stood on the other side. His shoes obviously expensive. On a lower level, car tires squealed as someone gunned the engine.

Suddenly, the lift 'pinged'. She heard the doors slide open, then voices. The man's feet spun to face the lift. She knew without looking that his hands would be in his pocket, his heart like hers would be pounding and he would be ready to lunge.

Children's voices, high and irritated echoed off the walls. A deeper, older but feminine voice snapped back, "Be quiet or I will take the toys back."

The man did not move. He stood rock-still, ready for anything. Was he wondering if the woman with children was his hunter?

She grabbed her taser from her pocket. _Now! Get him while he's distracted!. _She leapt to her feet. Instinctively, he turned and tired to duck. But he was just too slow. She squeezed the trigger. The gun was set to just enough voltage that it would make a person unconscious. A timer dropped from his hands with a _clack_. The man crumpled on the floor unconscious. His head met the ground with a _thump_.

She ran.

* * *

This has been re-edited. Originally posted early 2009.


	2. C

High up in a skyscraper, a girl advanced through a brightly lit hallway, heels clicking, towards a door. She stood still while a light scanned her retinas, a panel scan her fingerprint and another monitor her weight and heart rate. An electronic voice spoke,

"Haruno Sakura, cleared for entry."

Behind her bulky and muscular guards stood on either side of the now open door, armed and ready. Cameras inspecting every corner of the airy hallway. Another pair of doors slid open as Sakura stepped from the hallway into the director's waiting room.

A warm smile lit up Shizune's, the director's assistant, face.

"Ah, Sakura, how was your field test?

"It was good," Sakura replied, giving a small grin

"Well, head on in then, Tsunade is waiting."

The new director of JSIS was pretty strange, she was obsessed with alcohol and gambling and had a ferocious temper,

"Oh, by the way Sakura, she has someone in there with her,"

"Ohkay," The door opened,

"Hello Sakura," Tsunade said, giving a small smile. Her hands were folded under her chin and elbows resting on her ebony oak desk.

A man stood in the centre of the room, he was clad in black jeans, blue shirt and had dark sunglasses in his hand. His hair stood up to resemble a chicken's ass. A feeling of dread spread through Sakura as she recognised him. He turned. A red bump stood out from his forehead.

The door slid shut behind her.

Sakura looked at the man she had tagged in the car park. His godlike face was set in an expression that would sour milk, his eyebrows rose as he looked from Sakura to Tsunade then back again.

He doesn't know who I am. She looked different now. Sakura let out a breath, she had been holding it in without realising it.

"Take a seat Sakura, Sasuke," Tsunade said.

Sakura chose the seat furthest away from Sasuke. He was so intimidating. She sneeked a peek at the lump on his forehead, ouch, but his other features made up for it.

"Sasuke, meet your hunter." Tsunade said.

Sasuke look at the door but it remained shut. Tsunade said nothing, neither did Sakura. Every second etched into the air. Then Sasuke's eyes settled on Sakura, a strange look entered his eyes. "…No…"

Tsunade nodded and pressed her fingers together.

"I was tagged by…her..?!"

Sasuke said her as if it were some horrible disease and Sakura felt a lot less guilty about the bruise on his forehead.

"I don't believe it," he frowned turning to take a better look at her.

"I.., uh was wearing a wig and contacts…" Sakura said feeling the need to explain herself.

Long brunette hair and blue contacts had changed her appearance. Now she knew he would be seeing bubblegum pink hair and emerald green eyes.

"She's seventeen, a year younger than you," Tsunade tried.

Sasuke raised his eyebrows as if he didn't believe her.

"She's short but she's a prodigy, a genius. She could read encyclopaedias at the age of seven, can speak Korean, Chinese, English, Spanish, French and German other than Japanese fluently, learnt to play the cello in a day and her memory is remarkable. We put her with a surveillance expert for two hours and she followed you without detection.

Sasuke didn't look impressed.

"We held her back from taking her field test only because she was taking her medic exams, she could very well be the same ranking as you if she was not training to become the fully licensed medic she is." Tsunade added.

"I'm sorry you were hurt, I didn't mean-.."

"Don't worry Sakura," Tsunade interrupted, "You were ordered to tag and run."

"You should have told me you were sending a child," Sasuke growled, "I wasn't looking for a kid."

"Sasuke, despite your hurt pride, Sakura did well today," Tsunade sighed, "In one hour she had you tagged and unconscious. You couldn't have done anything anyway; your only orders were to escape."

Sasuke scowled.

"So,…" Tsunade implored, "Sasuke, she's one of your new team members."

"What?!" Sasuke almost yelled in disbelief, then composing himself, "You can't send me out with, with,.. her!"

"I can and I will." Tsunade's eyes were narrowed to a point which made her look menacing. "Once you go through this, you'll be immediately promoted given 90% of your evaluation was exceptional, and put on the active service roll, so just bear with it."

Sasuke did not argue further but scowled.

"You two will be part of a three man cell for 9 months, you will be trained under a supervisor in order to gain essential skills, hone your abilities and mindset and develop the capability to work in a team. Your induction will be Tuesday coming week, 0800 hours."

…

"Dismissed."


	3. O

**10 July 2012| Tuesday |0750 hours _ _ _**

She stepped out of the elevator into the hallway populated with some other recruits making their way to their meeting rooms. According to her phone -one she was given for work related purposes, it would not break, was waterproof, had worldwide coverage, had a 50 hour battery and an inbuilt GPS tracking device, she was assigned to Cell 7 in room 7.

Sakura opened the door to room 7 and spotted Sasuke sitting on a metal chair in the corner. He glanced at her momentarily then continued to stare out of the window and she was left awkwardly with her hand raised halfway for a little wave, she fumed, 'That prick! I'll kick his ass-'  
Her inner musings were cut short as the bang of the door accompanied by an exuberant exclamation of "Naruto Uzumaki is here!" broke the silence of the room. A blonde man, standing in the doorway with a wide grin brightened up the space.

He greeted her cheerfully, "Hi! My name's Uzumaki Naruto! Pleased to meet you!"

Sakura grinned, finally someone who could talk, "Hey, Haruno Sakura." She said shaking his hand.

He scratched his head, "Am I the second one here, I thought I was gonna be last. Hah!" he looked around, and then almost fell over when he spotted Sasuke.

"Oh my god. OI BASTARD, WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING HERE. IN MY TEAM'S ROOM?!"

Said man glances in the blonde's direction nonchalantly, "Idiot."

"OH MY GOD. YOU'RE ON MY TEAM AREN'T YOU? WHY THE HELL DID YOU FOLLOOOW MEEEEEE." Naruto wails, clutching the wall almost desperately.

Sasuke just rolled his eyes. "Hn."

After calming down, Naruto settled into the chair opposite Sakura's. "That bastard there, he's really evil, don't go near him. We were on the same introductory trainee group back at the Kyoto HQ, you know, when we learnt all that useless basic info about the Organisation, all that job description stuff and the testing. Yea, well, then after that, the bastard there managed to impress everyone and got a recommendation for a promo to active service... Hey.. wait a minute,.." Naruto paused, "If you're here.. that means.. that means.. you're not on the active service roll.. So.. you failed? YOU FAILED THE TEST?" Naruto cracked up as he came to his revelation. "HAHAHAHA, THE ALMIGHTY, UNDEFEATABLE UCHIHA SASUKE FAILED. HAHAHAHAHAHAH."

Sasuke glared it him, lips curled into a snarl. He quickly glanced at Sakura, narrowing his eyes as if to warn her not to open her mouth and mention the field test. Sakura scoffs and raises her brows, challenging him.

"Yo."

Three pairs of eyes swivelled towards the sound of the new voice. Naruto groans.

"Are you serious?!" He says, face buried in his palms, "I think Kami hates me. Of all people, I'm stuck with the bastard and this pervert again."

The silver haired man took up a seat at the head of the table. His face was covered in a mask and his dark eyes stared at the younger occupants of the room, assessing them. Sakura shifted nervously in her seat. His face was completely blank and he exuded an intimidating aura.

Suddenly the tension in the room dissipated as he cracked a smile, his visible eye crinkling.

He turned to Sasuke and stretched, placing his arms behind his head. "Told you you weren't ready." He turns back to the other two, "This kid here forced me to recommend him for advanced enlistment. Obviously, he didn't place onto the role. Failed the psychological test dismally."

Naruto snorted "Hah, the bastard is not mentally fit. Hah!" and Sasuke swore. "Fuck you."

Sakura watched the exchange with interest, apparently the three knew each other and trained together for a while, and Sasuke had applied to be promoted to active service, did well in the physical and medical evaluations but failed in the psychological test.

"Anyway!" Kakashi clapped his hands together, and passed around a folder to each person, "This is some general information you should all know. Glossary of terminologies, Hand signals, weapon information, the whole lot. If you don't know all of this," He stared pointedly at Naruto, who scratched his head sheepishly, "Study up cause I will be testing you. We can't have you on field without all this knowledge."

Sasuke sighed after quickly skimming through the papers, "Why do we even need to do this.. thing? I already know all this stuff, I can get to the serious stuff already."

Kakashi rolled his eyes, "Teamwork. Do you still not understand the reason why you failed that psychological evaluation? It's because of your absolutely pathetic ability to work, communicate and trust in others. So, like all the other recruits, you'll have to go through this."

He surveyed them once more before pulling out an orange book, "Okay, meeting's over. You can all go do what you brats normally do. Bye." and proceeded to stroll out of the room with one hand holding his book another in his pocket and not a glance backwards.

Sasuke was the first to leave, stalking out silently and ignoring the other two. Naruto turned to Sakura, as they got up to leave and wait for the lift. "Do you know all this stuff?" he asked, gesturing to the folder. Sakura flipped through it, terminology glossary, hand signals, weapons, drugs, transport, ranks, known threats, maps, basically a whole lot of information that would be crucial to become an efficient agent. She nods, "Yea, I learnt this stuff when I was tutored by Director Tsunade."

"Aaaw, darn, Sasuke bastard definitely knows this stuff, so that means I'm the only one who doesn't." He pouted, "I should go home to study then." He says making a face, "I talk to you later!" He waves his phone around and hands it for Sakura to input her number, "See ya!"

Sakura chuckled. Naruto was adorable and seemed to be completely unsuited to the lifestyle he had chosen. She got into her little Daihatsu Copen and drove back to the apartment she shared with Ino, a girl who she met at her orphanage when she and her parents had visited searching for potential talents. They had attended school together, Sakura given a scholarship at a private school that the Bureau secretly ran behind the scenes and when she was 15, the Service was explained to her and she was offered a chance to join the junior branch, which she accepted, training normally for a year then undertaking specialised training with Tsunade for another year.

When Sakura unlocked the door Ino was already home, sprawled on the couch, feet propped up on the table next to her own folder and eyes trained on the television. Sakura tossed her keys into a bowl by the door and leaned against the cupboards it was on. "You know, if everyone saw what a pig you're really like in private you would have nowhere near the number of admirers you have now." Ino's gaze flickered over to Sakura before returning to the TV and she smirked. "Well, no one will see it, not until I have a man tied down they won't" she chortled. Sakura sat next to her, reaching to pick up the folder on the coffee table, only to have her hand slapped away and a haughty "It's confidential!" muttered her way. She turned to Ino, brow raised in a 'Really?' to which Ino grinned and sighed a 'Fiiiiine.'

The information in the file was almost identical, the few differences being the Team information. "You see Shikamaru here?" Ino pointed to one of her teammates, "He is kinda really hot. He's like, super aloof and lazy but he's apparently super smart." She sighed dreamily. "Now show me your team!"  
Sakura hands over her own folder and watched with an amused expression as Ino flipped to Sasuke's page, her eyes widening and a low whistle emitted from her mouth.  
"Mmmm-mmm, man candy alert! Didn't you say your target for that exercise was called Sasuke?"  
She hummed a confirmation, turning to the Hana Yori Dango reruns that previously had Ino's attention.  
"You should have told me first thing he was so good looking, you lucky lucky girl." Ino said sighing and flicking the file back onto the table, attention returning to the drama.  
"He's really rude though," Sakura said, "Totally a turn off."  
"Babe, that face and body could make up for all off that, just keep his mouth shut."  
Sakura burst out laughing, "Oh my god, that's exactly I would say about you!"  
Ino turned to sneer at her, "Bitch please, I have an amazing personality.. Wait... Aaaaaaww, you think I'm attraaactiveeeee." She laughs glomping her and proceeding to attack her with tickles. Sakura giggles, "Oh my god you pig, get away you're gross and heavy."  
They played tackle for the next few minutes before both slumped on opposite ends of the couch tired but happy. They needed normalcy in their lives sometimes. Normalcy that would soon all but disappear.

"We should get studying."

"..Yea."

* * *

Yay! Decided to roll up my sleeves, overcome my laziness and churn this chapter out. Finally, (after two long years of nothing) I have decided where to go with this story, not the best time admittedly, given I have the biggest exams of my life to date, exams that will determine what I do for the rest of my life. Nah, it will decide my University and course, but that is huge. So bear with me as the updates will be slow until this year is over (around November actually.) I am also very determined to finish this, but knowing me, I'm bound to get lazy again so feel free to give me a kick in the butt every so often! (That's my not-so-subtle way of begging for some reviewing love! (; )  
I kinda-ish also need a beta, anyone up for it ? ^_^ heheh.

Anyway, note, I apologise for the low quality of this chapter. I found it so hard to force out. I just want to get to the action dammit! hahaha

Also, this story will be spilt into two halves. One is going to be when they're younger working on smaller things, blabla. Second is going to be when they're older, matured and whatnot. Kinda like Naruto and Naruto Shippuden. Don't want to spoil too much. And I don't know yet if I'll split it into two separate stories or keep it in the same one. I guess we'll all find out later.

Last thing, there'll be time skips coming up! Actually, don't know why I felt that it was necessary to mention but it is now. So yea.

Until next chapter! x.


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